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Giant naturally formed snowballs appear on a beach in Nyda, Siberia.

The snowballs spread across an 11 mile coast, in Siberia.

Above, image credit Sergey Bychenkov/Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute

Locals have never seen anything like this phenomenon. The ice and snow balls varied in size from a few inches, to almost three feet wide.

Sergei Lisenkov from Russia’s Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute explained:

When the water in the gulf rose, it came into contact with the frost. The beach began to be covered with ice. Then the water began to slowly retreat, and the ice remained. Its pieces were rolling over in the wet sand, and turned into these balls. It is a rare natural phenomenon. As a rule, grease ice forms first, slush. And then a combination of the action of the wind, the outlines of the coastline, and the temperature, may lead to the formation of such balls.

 

via gizmodo

source Siberian Times